Young Blood
by Chaos Supernova
Summary: Halle Dair never wanted anything in her life to change. Yet it did, starting with her father - or the man she thought was her father - sending her to Vinland Charter School in New York City. Now she's swept up in a world of nine worlds, gods, trouble, and most of all? Lies. Change is coming, for better or worse.
1. I Run For My Life

Young Blood

Chapter One

It was Tuesday when I got the letter.

My dad had made me to apply to a fancy boarding school all the way in New York. I didn't want to, of course, I had a nice life in Pennsylvania with my friends, but he said that when I went to middle school I should "explore new opportunities" and "gain traveling experience". He also said it would "be good for my character". It didn't help that Francesca was pawing through my closet looking for the "perfect outfit".

Don't get me wrong, I love Francesca, but sometimes – no, all the times – her clotheshorse-ness can be annoying. Oh well. There's no such thing as a perfect best friend, I guess.

"Halle, what about this?" She held up a cream sweater and black leggings.

I sighed. It wasn't the worst outfit I could think of, and I _really_ didn't want to have to continue to listen to Francesca rambling. "Sure, whatever."

She squealed, and I wondered how I ended up with a total white girl for a friend. "Perfect! Now, where are those converse...?"

I pointed to the bottom of my closet. She dove down and set them on my bed. "You're going to look fabulous for your first day in New York."

I hugged my pillow. It was fuzzy, round shaped, and I named it Ball (because children are terrible at naming toys). Just another memory I'd have to leave behind. "I don't want to go."

She sighed. "I know, but hey, NYC! Where all great books and movies take place! History! Fame! Stuff like that! It doesn't get you the least bit excited?"

"You know what gets me excited? Coming home from school when I have the house to myself and watching TV for three hours and eating buttery popcorn."

She shook her head. "You're hopeless."

"I've noticed."

"Halle?" my dad called. "Francesca's parents are here!"

Francesca gave me a weak smile. "Bye, Halle."

I buried my face further into Ball.

…

The car was a depressing sight on a Wednesday morning.

Most Wednesday mornings are depressing. The car only made it worse.

I was wearing the outfit Francesca had picked out for me. It's not like she could come and say goodbye, the school year started today for South Middle School. The school I would've gone to, but _no_ , I just _had_ to go to "Vinland Charter School".

My dad was already in there, tapping the wheel. I opened the door, putting my backpack, along with the rest of my luggage, in the backseat. "Sitting up front, Hal?" he asked.

I shook my head, not wanting to talk to him.

He sighed, a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, Hal, but-" He glanced over his shoulder for a fraction of a second. It could've been my imagination. "It's for the best."

Sure. Sending your kid to some fancy private school they've never heard of nor want to hear of is "for the best".

I "hmphed" in response.

It went like this for most of the car ride. Dad would try to make small talk, and I'd "hmph" or say the minimal answer. I didn't want to talk to Dad right now.

Dad had always been a good dad, even when Mom left us when I was born. He didn't seem bitter over it. He just...accepted it. And I did too.

We were going over a bridge when the bridge started vibrating. Almost like it was twitching. I dismissed it at first, thinking it was just the cars whizzing past us, but I looked over my shoulder.

A...giant? At the end of the bridge? Was I hallucinating?

"Dad?" I asked, not caring if I sounded scared. I was. "Look behind you."

He did, and swore under his breath. "I thought we'd have more time..."

"Time for _what_?"

"To explain." He accelerated.

"EXPLAIN WHAT?"

"Halle, I'm not actually your father."

"WHAT?!"

"My brother. Austin. He had an affair with...well, there's no time now. When I say so, get out of the car and _run_. There'll be a black SUV with some people in it at the end of the bridge. If one of them is named Sigrid, a woman, then you're safe. If they aren't, then keep running until you reach Vinland. You'll be safe there, no matter what."

What?

My mouth opened, and closed. I didn't say anything. I _couldn't_ say anything.

The bridge shook more. People were beginning to panic, I could tell, speeding their cars up. The giant – if that's even what it was – roared, flipped a car off the bridge, and screaming began.

Dad – no, uncle, I suppose – grimaced as the giant neared us. It seemed like the car wasn't even moving compared to how close the giant was getting.

When the giant was about fifty yards away from us, Dad – uncle – whatever, slammed the brakes. The car skidded to a stop as I was jerked back and forth. "GO!" he screamed.

I slung my backpack over my shoulders, unbuckled my seatbelt, and ran for my life.


	2. I Think This Is A Kidnapping

Young Blood

Chapter Two

And I ran for my life.

It was painful. I had never been athletic, and now? That wasn't helping. But I ran, and didn't look back.

I heard the groan of metal behind me, and I glanced back just in time to see the giant toss my car – with the person who had raised me in it, not to mention all my possessions – get dumped into the New York Harbor.

I screamed. Yes, I screamed. It wasn't a smart thing, I know, but I couldn't help it. The giant turned in my direction, and I ran more, vaguely aware of tears stinging my cheeks.

Five minutes later, I gave up.

I collapsed. I couldn't run anymore. I just couldn't. I was physically incapable of moving further.

The giant loomed over me, and I got a good look at its ugly face. It was a strange shade of sky blue, with greasy, stringy black hair and wearing nothing but a battered loincloth. Long story short? Disgusting.

I accept my fate of death. Just let it be quick.

I could feel its breath on me. I gagged.

"This'll be easier than I thought," it sneered, in a deep, resonating voice.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Just let it be quick.

One second passed, then another, then a third. I looked up, and the giant that had been above me was impaled by a white, glowing dagger.

Could this day get any weirder?

It started to pitch forwards, and I scrambled away from it just in time. A second later, the spot on the bridge where I had collapsed was crumbling into the water below along with the giant.

Someone whistled, and the glowing dagger flew straight up from the hole in the bridge. I turned behind me to see a boy, my age, maybe older, holding the dagger. His sandy blonde hair was plastered to his head with sweat, and he was breathing heavily.

"What are you waiting for?" he said.

I ran over to him. I didn't have much of a choice, seeing he saved my life and all. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Ben. Broderick. Son of Baldur." He grabbed my hand. "Just...just come with me."

"Okay, _random stranger who could be a child molester_ ," I responded, adding emphasis on the last part.

He rolled his eyes. They were an interesting shade of green-gold, I noticed. "Shut up and run."

"THAT'S WHAT I WAS DOING!" I yelled as I struggled to keep up with him.

Ben was fast. Like, superhumanly fast. And I wasn't. Every so often he would glance behind him to see me, wheezing like a fat guy on a hot day.

He stopped, thank god. Or...well, whatever magical deity was up in the sky. I didn't think the giant was something out of Christianity.

"Gods, for a child of Loki, you're _slow_ ," he said, glaring at me.

Gods? As in, plural gods? Well, that explained some things. "Child of Loki? Who's low-key?"

"Loki. The Norse god. Prince of lies, god of mischief? Homicidal murderer?"

I stared at him blankly. "What?"

He took a step towards me until I was intentionally closer to a boy than I ever had been before. "Your eyes. The green. It's Loki's color. You're a child of Loki," he said in disgust.

My eyes widened. "I – that can't be right-"

"You have only one parent you know of, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Said parent was probably acting weird this entire car ride?"

I frowned. " _Yes_ , but-"

"The frost giant? The Jotun? Part of Norse mythology?"

"I HAVE A DAD, NOT A MOM."

This startled Ben. "What?"

"Well, technically the man who raised me isn't my father but my uncle, and my dad was a guy named Austin Dair who had an affair with some woman. That's all I know."

Ben knit his eyebrows. "Well, it could have been Loki disguised as a woman, but he swore to never go through childbirth again after-"

Now it was my turn to interrupt. "Why are there more giants?" I pointed to the large things getting on the bridge.

Ben swore. "We have to get out of here."

"I NOTICED!"

The bridge shook, and I stumbled, falling to the ground. I tried to push myself up, noticing there was blood on my hands and knees. But the swaying bridge made it nearly impossible for me to get on my feet.

Cars were just sliding off the bridge like it was slicked in butter. It made me sick to think about the people, the lives in there.

Apparently it literally made me sick, because I threw up right then and there. Little white lights danced in front of me. A young woman stood there, with soft, pretty brown hair like mine, and emerald eyes that glittered. She looked like me.

The woman then burst into flames, and I watched her get dragged down into a swirling pit of death and darkness and fire and screaming. She smiled at me before she went all the way under.

The little white lights grew bigger, until there was a flash of white.

…

There was a searing pain on my left arm.

What happened?

There was a boy, not Ben, drawing something on my left arm. He had quiffed, close cropped black hair and startlingly blue eyes. He was older than me, by a few years, probably.

"Hi," he said, not missing a beat on whatever he was drawing on my arm.

"What happened?" I asked, looking around. He pushed me down when I tried to sit up. "Gods, just sit still for a second. I'm almost done."

I was lying down on a row of car seats in what appeared to be an SUV. Hopefully the black SUV with Sigrid in it. The dark haired boy was drawing on my arm with a pen. He looked over his work, satisfied, capped the pen, and put it in his pocket.

The drawing on my arm – two parallel lines and a diagonal line connecting them at the top, it vaguely resembled a podium – glowed with faint green light, and then faded into nothingness. I felt immediately better, well rested, strong, less "I got run over by a truck" and more "I could run a thousand miles".

I stared at the place the drawing used to be, which still sort of glowed. "What _was_ that?" I asked the dark haired boy.

"Uruz," he said, pronouncing the word like "oo-ruhz". "It's a healing rune."

"What?"

"Runes. Norse magic. They can be inscribed in objects or people to give them magic, or just be used as an alphabet. Courtesy of the goddess Frigg." He said this like he'd said it many times before.

"Oh." I sat up, the boy let me this time. A teenage girl was driving the car, and in the row of seats in front of me, were two kids. Ben was there, cleaning his white dagger, and a girl around my age, looking very lethal with a battleaxe strapped to her back and multiple sheaths with throwing knives in them.

Ben looked up from his dagger. "Oh. Hey."

"Can someone please just tell me what's going on?" I pleaded.

The dark haired boy put a hand on my shoulder. "It'll all be explained back at Vinland."

Vinland...Vinland Charter School? What did Vinland have to do with this?

I didn't get a chance to answer, because the dark haired boy moved his hand to my neck and pressed. My vision went spotty again, but this time it was just blackness, no flashing lights.

…

When I woke up (again), I was in a real bed this time, in a room not unlike a hotel room. Francesca had sent me pictures of her older brother, who was a freshman in college, and his dorm room. This room reminded me of a nicer version of that.

The room had a queen size bed in the center, pressed against the wall, with a nightstand on one side of it and a dresser on the other. An old steamer trunk was at the foot of the bed, and on the far wall were a set of armchairs and a small table. The walls were painted a charcoal gray, and the hardwood floors were the color of chocolate.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, which was layered in furry blankets and pillows. I remembered Ball, and I felt something sharp in my chest.

Ball, my dad/uncle, all the objects that made up my life, they were all gone. I literally had nothing now.

I cried.

I heard footsteps. The dark haired boy appeared from one of the two hallways on either side of the bed, eating a bagel. He froze when he saw me. "...Is this a bad time?"

I angrily wiped the snot from my nose. "Yes. Yes, this is a _very_ bad time."

He continued eating his bagel nonchalantly. "Sorry. But I figured you'd want to find out what's going on. Got a few new recruits, we're going to do an initiation ceremony since we've got more than one. They'll explain everything there."

I heard what I said, but I didn't respond to it.

"Sorry I knocked you out, but Sigrid needed to drive, and questions are distracting. Never distract a driver. Or Sigrid, for that matter."

I crossed my arms.

He sighed. "Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but you just kind of have to deal for now, okay?"

I jumped to my feet. "'Deal'? Well, I'm sorry if dealing with the _death of the man who raised me and all of my possessions destroyed_ is hard to deal with, not to mention the fact that apparently these god things are real and one of them is my mom!"

He shrugged. "People have gone through worse."

"Like _who_?"

"Take Ben, for starters. He and his mother lived happily until when he was twelve Loki's wolves – children of Fenris – found him, killed his mom and nearly him, too, burned their house down along with his best friend who was inside at the time, and left with literally nothing."

I said nothing. I didn't want to, because I couldn't deny that yes, some people had it worse than me.

"And to make it worse," the dark haired boy continued, "his friend's parents blamed Ben for the kid's death, even when Ben was in the hospital in a critical state. When he made a 'miraculous recovery' – courtesy of yours truly – and got out of the hospital, he found out his grandparents – the only family he had left – had a lawsuit on their hands. So since they had to use everything they owned to pay off the lawsuit, now they were left with nothing, too. And Ben felt like it was all his fault. But they got a happy ending, they live here at Vinland now, his grandmother cooks and his grandfather makes weapons. Ben, though...our medics here, including me, diagnosed him with PTSD. Ben does not get a happy ending. Moral of the story? Someone always has it worse than you. Always."

I frowned. "Okay, okay, I get it, I shouldn't complain. Still, though. You said it yourself. It's a lot to take in."

He nodded. "Yes. But can you freak out later? Please?"

I sighed. "I'll try."

"Good." He fixed his icy blue eyes on me. "My name is Asa Boyd, son of Eir. I'm the head of the medical staff at Vinland-"

I held up a hand. "Hold up – you're the head? But you're what, fifteen? How can a fifteen year old be the one with the most experience here? Don't you have adults?"

"Fourteen," he corrected. "And no, our adults are rather scarce. The oldest people here are Ben's grandparents, but they're civilians, so they don't really count. I think the oldest mortal is Kassie. She's eighteen. All of this will be explained in initiation."

Eighteen years old? What was my fa – _uncle_ – thinking when he sent me here?

"How can you be the son of air?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "E-I-R. The Norse goddess of healing."

"Ohh. Wait – your mother was a goddess?" I looked around. "Is this some sort of cult?"

Asa snorted. "No, it's not a cult, it's reality. The runes and jotun weren't enough proof for you?"

I thought back to the previous events of the day. "Now that I think about it, things are weird," I decided. "Still – children of gods – that's pretty far-fetched."

"Who's your parent?" he asked. "Do you know?"

I shook my head. "Ben said I was a child of Loki because of my eyes, but I had a mortal father. So it's kind of a mystery."

He studied me with his own icy blue eyes. "You look like a child of Loki. I can definitely see the resemblance. If that's true, though, that you had a mortal father – then I have no clue," he said, mystified.

"Well, help find out, would you? I want to know just who my mother is so I can slap her in the face."

Amused, he raised his eyebrows. "Goddesses are powerful. I wouldn't do that."

"It's what she deserves for leaving me."

He looked away. "Gods are like that."

I had a feeling I struck a nerve. I didn't really care. "So, when's initiation?"

"When the others get back from the recruiting trip," Asa said, not meeting my gaze. A horn sounded, like something out of medieval times, making me wince. Asa wasn't fazed. "Which would be now," he said, getting up from the armchair, and throwing away his napkin.


	3. Are You Sure This Isn't A Cult?

Young Blood

Chapter Three

Asa led me through the left hallway, the one he came out of, which was a kitchenette connecting to the front door of what I assumed was a dorm room.

"So," I started, "is this like, my room now? At whatever place this is?"

He nodded. "It's a dorm room," he clarified. "Because most demigods-"

"Demigods?"

"Half mortal, half god. Your other parent – your mother, you say, is a Norse god. I have explained this to you."

"Yeah, I know, just let me get used to all your fancy words and gods and whatever. My school's mythology unit would have been in seventh grade," I said.

As we walked down the hallway, he looked at me. "How old are you?"

"Twelve," I admitted. I had always hated my age, twelve seemed so young in comparison to Francesca's thirteen. Thirteen was the golden age in my eyes. Or sixteen. Actually, any age above twelve. I didn't feel twelve. I felt a lot older than twelve.

He whistled. "That's young. You must be someone to have jotuns after you at twelve. Well," he frowned, "there was Ben, but Ben is a...special case."

"What do you mean?"

"His mother was a daughter of Odin. That's some powerful shiz right there."

I knit my eyebrows. "So he's what...three fourths god?"

"Something like that. He I can understand. You, well...no offense, but you don't seem like anything special to me."

"Gee, thanks," I muttered. "Well, you're fourteen, how are you here?"

He shrugged. "I come and I go."

That was hardly an answer, but I didn't get to press him more, as the hallway he had been leading me down opened into a cavernous auditorium, with movie-theater style seats in rows, a large dais at the end of the seats, and torches in delicately carved sconces placed around the room, carved with weird symbols – runes, maybe? – like the one Asa had painted on my arm.

"Welcome to the Great Hall," he said, making it sound like all caps. I imagined it was.

There were a few other kids in the "Great Hall" already. A boy and three girls.

I've never been good around people. I mean, I had the odd friend or two, my dad, and Francesca, but that was kind of it. No one really talked to me that much at elementary school unless they had to. They weren't mean, so to say, but no one really made an effort to become friends with me. So four kids that I have to socialize with? No thanks.

Asa nudged me. "Gods, just sit down already."

I glared at him, but did what he said. I was an awkward two seats away from the group of kids that were talking to each other.

"And then it just...came out of nowhere! It was throwing balls of fire at me and my mom, so I took our kitchen knives – like the whole block – and threw it at it! That didn't even slow it down, though...it took a certain bone dagger to kill it. Just...thank god my mom is safe," the blonde girl said, putting a hand to her...well, chesty chest.

The boy rolled his eyes, as if to say "whatever", a dark haired girl was engrossed in the story, and the hispanic girl was looking down at her hands, as if there was something on them.

They looked at me when I sat down. She tried not to show it, but the blonde looked me up and down. The hispanic girl looked up at me with soft brown eyes. The boy had dark brown, wild hair, sort of like an "I just woke up like this look". His black glasses were crooked on his nose.

"Who's your parent?" blonde asked, not missing a beat. "My dad's Thor." She grinned at me, showing perfect, movie star teeth. "My name's Sam, what's yours?"

"Halle," I said. "Nice to meet you, Sam." Not really, she seemed like one of those girls back at elementary school with five boyfriends, rich parents, and no siblings.

"That's Anya," she said, pointing to the dark haired girl, "Isaac," the boy, "and Talia." She pointed at the hispanic girl. She seemed like she liked Anya and Isaac better.

"Isaac's the son of Loki, which is apparently a big deal around here. Anya's the daughter of Bragi, some obscure music god or whatever. Talia-" Sam turned to Talia. "I'm sorry, who was your parent again?"

"Idun," she muttered, still looking at her hands.

Sam snapped her fingers. "Oh! Right! That one. Anyway, I was just telling everyone about the fire giant that attacked my house. What happened to you?"

I opened my mouth. It's not really like I wanted to say, I mean, it would just be more painful.

Thankfully, Ben came to my rescue. Again. Wow. This is getting embarrassing. "Um, can you not? Some people lost more than you did, today, Sam."

Isaac snorted. Ben shot him a glare. If looks could kill, I think Isaac would spontaneously combust.

Ben rolled his eyes in disgust and walked away. "God," Isaac said, raising his eyebrows, "what's his problem?"

Sam watched Ben as he walked away. "Dunno," said Sam. I think it was the least she'd said in one sentence.

"Maybe something happened to him," Talia said, finally looking me in the eye.

"Yeah." I told them the story I heard from Asa.

"That sucks," Isaac summed up.

We nodded in agreement. "Well, thankfully my mom's okay. I mean, Thor probably would have been PO'd if she died..."

"Um, I hate to break it to you, but Thor has like, ten billion girlfriends. He probably doesn't know your mom exists," Isaac said. Good. She was getting annoying.

Sam gave him a death glare and went back to explaining her life story to Anya. Talia and Isaac looked at me. "Why're you here?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Blue man chased me on the bridge. Dumped my uncle in the ocean. Ben killed the giant. Kinda an orphan now."

Isaac and Talia nodded. "I was lucky. Wolves showed up at my house. Except they didn't try to kill me, they nuzzled me and led me here. My mom knew what was coming. She let me go. And I guess that's why that guy – Ben – hates me. Makes sense."

We turned to Talia. "I..." She sighed. "Well, I guess there's no going back now. I was in school. A creature...a giant snake, sort of, crashed into the school, and ate over 400 people...they're blaming it on a gas main rupture, or something now...I was one of the lucky ones who got out, I don't know how, but I was glowing, like, gold, and it caught up to me, and knelt down at me feet. I touched it, it was nudging me, and it too started to glow, and...I don't know what happened. Its injuries healed – there were a lot of them, scratches, scars, that sort of thing – and looked...younger, almost. Then it went away, and disappeared into the distance. It was foggy out where I was. New Mexico. A girl approached me shortly after and introduced herself as Honor, daughter of Heimdall. She then took me here...I don't remember how."

All of us were stunned by Talia's story. How could we not be? A dragon just bowed down to her, after it ate 400 people in her school...that's some serious stuff. Even Sam looked a little taken aback, which I think everyone was happy about.

"That's hardcore," Anya said meekly. Talia looked back down at her shoes again. The torches in the Great Hall died down, and we looked at the dais.

The same girl that was driving the van was before us. Her ombre hair was in a plait that fell to her waist, and she was wearing a winged helmet, and armor, some combination of metal plates and chainmail that was covered in runes. She looked dangerous, even more so than the girl in the van.

She looked down on all of us. She was incredibly pretty, but there was an edge about her, like she would rather kill you than let you kiss her. "My name is Sigrid, and I run this place."

Sigrid. Wait a second! That was who Dad/Uncle said to find. "If there's a woman named Sigrid, you're safe." I came to the right place, then.

"The place in question is Vinland Charter School, though really, that's just a front. This school is called Vinland after the Viking settlement on the banks of the Hudson that was founded by Leif Erikson, a great explorer. Everyone here just calls it Vinland. Vinland is a training camp for Norse demigods – half god, half mortal. Human, that is."

"If you haven't realized this by now, yes, one of your parents is a Norse god. Yes, they are real. If you don't believe me, look around you. Think about what happened to all of you today. No, we aren't a cult. No, we don't kidnap children. Some of your parents may have even sent you here. All of your parents knew."

"We are training you to keep the mortal world safe. Safe from any mythical threat. Which brings me to my point – the gods are gone."

"I know I said they are real a second ago, but the reality is, they WERE real. Ragnarok happened about twelve years ago, in 2003. Just like it was prophesied, everything perished in the fire that followed the final battle. Midgard – Earth – was supposed to, but what the Nordic people didn't prophesy was the demise of their empire. The gods didn't cease to exist, but they were significantly weaker, and they had almost no power over Midgard. They could only visit it in year-long gaps, in comparison to anytime they wanted, like back in the old days. So Midgard drifted further and further away from the World Tree – the tree that all the nine realms are attached to – and when Ragnarok came, you were barely affected."

"The gods knew Ragnarok was coming soon at the turn of the century, and most of them drew whatever power they had to go down to Midgard, and,well, create you. They knew that they'd need heroes to help fight in Ragnarok. However, it came earlier than they anticipated, and while all of you were infants, toddlers, or children, the gods were doomed. Nothing could stop the forces of chaos, the giants, Loki's spawn." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Isaac flinch.

"All that's left of the godly world is the most despicable realms, Jotunheim, Muspellheim, Niflheim, and Midgard, though Midgard is much better than the former. Though the end of your world is coming, too. Ginnungagap, the void of emptiness, what mortals see as what you call outer space, will swallow everything when the World Tree falls. And it's close to falling. It's only a matter of weeks."

"Our job is to get Midgard as far away from the World Tree as possible. If we can get it detached, or mostly detached, then your world will be saved. The Nordic world will be gone forever, and maybe for the best. All memory of anything Norse will be erased from the collective mind of humanity, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've already made plans for Vinland after the World Tree falls – it'll just be a regular charter school. For now, though, we have a job to do."

"We're going to combine all of our resources to cut the magical bonds that bind Midgard to the Tree. We'll send a team through one of the last gateways – somewhere in Dublin, I believe – and they'll use their powers to cut through, and fight anything that gets in their way. That's what we're training all of you for."

Isaac raised his hand. Sigrid's eyes narrowed. "Yes, child of Loki?"

"So you're asking a bunch of preteens to save the world?"

Her lip curled. "We don't have any other option, do we?"

"What about you? Aren't you some magical warrior maiden or something? A Valkyrie?"

"A single Valkyrie isn't strong enough to cut through bonds of the World Tree. I can help you, definitely, but I can't do it alone."

"Aren't there supposed to be more Valkyries?"

She nodded. "They all fought – and died – in Ragnarok. I was one of Odin's finest. He assigned me to stay on Midgard, to take care of all of you once you came of age." Her gaze swept over us. "I wouldn't say many of you have come of age yet, but there's no other way."

She motioned for someone to come up onstage. A group of kids a little bit older than me, with some familiar faces, came up onstage. "These are Vinland's students – warriors, scouts, and sorcerers. You'll find your area of expertise. We're only about fifteen strong, but what we lack in quantity we make up for in quality. I'll be assigning you a one on one mentor, who will teach you everything you need to know."

"Samantha Thurman, daughter of Thor, you are assigned to Doe Beecher, daughter of Frigg." A girl stepped out from behind some of the others, and smiled weakly. "May she teach you wisdom and humbleness."

"Isaac Mette, son of Loki, you are assigned to Tori Raynor, daughter of Tyr." Tori grit her teeth, no doubt angry about being stuck with a son of Loki. "May she teach you justice and truth."

"Anya Peters, daughter of Bragi, you are assigned to Honor Aric, daughter of Heimdall. May she teach you vigilance and loyalty." Honor, a stoic looking girl, nodded at Anya, who I assumed was too shy to nod back.

"Talia Delgado, daughter of Idun, you are assigned to Asa Boyd, son of Eir." Asa squinted at her as if to get a good look at Talia. "May he teach you mastery of your powers and purpose."

I swallowed when she looked at me. "And Halle Dair, daughter of an unknown goddess. We'll clear that up. Halle, may you come here?" I get up from my seat and feel everyone's eyes on me as I step onto the dais.

She looked at Asa. "Your Sharpie."

He nodded gravely, and I think this might be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. He starts drawing on my arm again. It was an 'x' with a point connecting the top tips of the 'x', like a diamond with two lines on the bottom.

He looked at me and grinned. "It's Othalan. Rune for inheritance, it sees who your parents are, your lineage. It's how we find out who everyone is."

It morphed into letters. H, E, and L.

Hel?

"Hel," he said, his eyes widening. "That's...that's not possible," he stammered, looking back up at Sigrid, who went pale.

"It is, technically, we just never really thought she would do anything like it. We may never know her reasons...perhaps Loki told her to? Loki was always plotting something... Anyway, Halle Dair, daughter of Hel..." Sigrid looked over the group of students, carefully scanning each one. "You are assigned to Ben Broderick, son of Baldur, grandson of Odin."

My eyes meet his, and we stare at Sigrid in disbelief. "May he teach you confidence and power." Sigrid's gray eyes bored into me. I might have been imagining it, but I swear she whispered "And may you teach him how to feel."


End file.
